Leon Draisaitl’s scouting report had some downbeat verbal. The man worked hard after draft day to iron those issues out of his game, and to add things that were not abundantly clear on the day Craig MacTavish called his name (the shot is a monster, as an example). To build a Stanley Cup champion, it takes a village. Is everyone comfortable giving credit where due?
The Athletic article today is about John Klingberg and his fascinating past, with an eye to the future. It is here.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN JANUARY
- At home to: ANA (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- On the road to: SEA, BOS, PIT, CHI (Expected 2-1-1) (Actual 3-1-0)
- At home to: LAK (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- On the road to: MIN, COL, VAN (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 2-1-0)
- At home to: WAS, VAN, BUF, SEA, DET (Expected 3-2-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- Overall expected results: 8-4-2, 18 points in 14 games
- January result: 7-3-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 29-15-3, 61 points in 47 games
This could be a circus depending on how the stripes call the game. I expect thunderous boos for Conor Garland, and that’s all part of the fun. The Oilers cannot get distracted by anything, and need the two points. A lot of hard work could be wasted with a poor end to January’s schedule.
PROCUREMENT
- Steve Tambellini: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
- Stu MacGregor: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, Leon Draisaitl
- Craig MacTavish: Darnell Nurse, Leon Draisaitl
- Bob Green: Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard, Stuart Skinner
- Peter Chiarelli: Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard, Stuart Skinner
- Ken Holland: Zach Hyman, Mattias Ekholm, Connor Brown, Brett Kulak, Corey Perry, Mattias Janmark, Adam Henrique, Troy Stecher, Derek Ryan, Drake Caggiula, Noah Philp, Calvin Pickard
- Jeff Jackson: Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, Josh Brown
- Stan Bowman: Vasily Podkolzin, Ty Emberson, Kasperi Kapanen
If the Oilers win the Stanley Cup this season, you could call it Ken Holland’s team. Credit is a strange thing. Often a team succeeds at a high level when the people at the top are unconcerned with credit and focused on things that matter (Clare Drake, from Yorkton, SK, put it far better in words and in action).
I do think every man listed here from Steve Tambellini to Stan Bowman, will have a sense of pride at being involved in something very special (should it come to pass).
That said, I’d like to return to Draisaitl and his accomplishments since draft day. Part of his development could be described as “McDavid osmosis” and simply playing with and practicing against true greatness. Wayne Gretzky elevated Mark Messier and all of those Oilers back in the day, and I do think McDavid floats the current boats, too.
We can never let go of the individual who refines his game in search of perfection. Leon Draisaitl is such a man. Awesome talent, great intelligence, tremendous desire and a work ethic at the outer marker of the sport. That’s Leon Draisaitl.
A busy Lowdown today, we get rolling at noon on Sports 1440. Oilers v Canucks and the rage in the cage at Rogers Place tonight, the fact the Oilers need to be concerned with the two points in play, and NFL playoffs will be major discussion points. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio, Radioplayer Canada, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.
My guest today will be Kevin McCurdy, Bruce’s son. He’s a very bright guy and has a unique view of the game. If you have any questions for Kevin, please write them in response to this post.
Has your Dad ever discovered anything particularly memorable about the universe, from work?
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
See what I mean, Kevin? He probably remembered that quote without having to look at IMDB.
Regular memoried people remember the last sentence only.
There have been many times during my life when civilians asked me what amounted to ignorant if innocent questions.
Today I have been hoist by my own petard.
What will not be lost in time is the astronomer who named the planet Uranus. That guy is still smirking, shaking his head, and chuckling to himself.
Bruce you can’t say ‘you people’, might get cancelled!
Do you have a freakishly good memory like your Dad does?
If he could change one rule, what would it be?
I interact often with Kevin online. Smart, well-written and very respectful in discussion.
Does your Dad support Pluto being downgraded from full planet status?
Bruce is probably old enough to still be lamenting Ceres’s loss of “planet status”. /s
Time to grind Quinn Hughes into powder.
Forget Garland, he’s a fine player but mostly an annoyance. True payback, if that’s what the Oilers are in the mood for, is to get under the skin of Hughes and make him regret the Garland penalties.
Let’s have some fun with that.
Don’t even worry about Garland tonight period, just get the win in regulation and send those Knuckers packing.
Hope Skinner has an outstanding game and the PP and PK are better than last game.
Be nice if another line besides Drai’s helps out on the score card tonight.
Just play hard and win.
Agree, BUT… if you get the chance to exert some legal pain on him (including Meyers and Hughes), please please exact that pain. And as you head off the ice why not give a smiling glare at Tocchet.
Holland of course has a lot to do with this team, but if they win I will give JJ and Bowman most of the credit. Because of handling the ticking bomb of the O sheets, and under the low key changes that will be what has put them over the top
Also because some of Holland’s work has caused contract and cap issues that make moves harder
Ceci for Emberson and picking up Podkolzin were very astute moves. Makes it seem like the Oilers have increased data analytic capabilities.
I give the most credit to MacT. Nurse + Drai + Eakins to ensure they would get McDavid. The foundation was built years ago.
I would like to see the guys focus on finishing, work on the polish around scoring, be it shots or executing odd man rushes properly. They have the 2nd highest Fenwick For % of the better teams I track, the highest HDCF%, but are 7th in 5v5 GF% and 5th in HDGF%
All of that hard work fore checking and cycling, put the biscuit in the cage fellas, and get rewarded for the work with wins and also with an easier time closing out games. This is the way
The GM list is a real dogs breakfast.
I was going to say MacT was my fav/the best of the worst but then I remembered Eakins.
Started following the Oilers out of curiosity when they got the three 1st round picks in a row but really got engaged when they won the McDavid lottery. It was exciting to think what a young team could do when they added a generational player to all those high draft picks. Since then it’s been a series of small gains that have been hindered by a few disastrous decisions.
If I’m rating the GMs, Chiarelli would have to be at the bottom for his 2 brutal moves. The Reinhart trade and the Lucic signing were both crippling moves for this franchise.
Hollands worst move was obviously the Campbell signing. He should get some of the blame for the offer sheet fiasco, but I think the majority of that blame should be on Jackson. Jackson wasn’t in charge that long, but his handling of the salary cap and roster resulted in just as big a talent drain as any move since 2015.
I’ve liked the small moves that Bowman has made. He hasn’t taken any big swings yet, and if he does, that will be what determines his ranking.
When you have the talent that the Oilers did, it is far better to work around the edges, than take the big swing and miss.
Too bad Chiarelli couldn’t figure this out.
Chiarelli never had to figure anything out.
Chiarelli flat out hated the Oilers.
Hall for Larsson was just plain stupid from the get go. And then dealing Eberle was just icing on the cake.
Hall for Larson was an even trade. Hall was more talented, but Larson filled a position of need.
Also Larson was signed for 1 more year and had a 2 million dollar smaller cap hit. I was fine with the trade.
The Eberle trade wasn’t good either, but would have turned out okay if they had just hung on to Strome.
And yet even the Eberle move was manageable before checking down to… checks notes… Spooner? that can’t be right…
No more bubble for Hyman
” I was talking with another executive who said the Oilers and their opponents will be on high alert for how games are called in the aftermath. Do the Oilers get more power plays? Is there any bias against them? Teams worry about overcompensation. The situations are not comparable, but Calgary’s penalty count went from 30th to fourth after Dennis Wideman high-sticked a linesman in 2016. So the paranoia exists.”
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/32-thoughts-how-record-profits-in-nhl-could-impact-salary-cap-next-cba/
Wideman also murdered an official. Not quite comparable situations.
Pickard starts tonight.
I couldn’t care less about Connor Garland except that he is a good player that scores goals. The last thing this team needs is to focus at all on Connor Garland and get distracted or take penalties (see Matthew Tkachuk and Kassian – Oilers lost games directly due to loading focus and taking penalties).
I don’t understand this Garland as a new villain and I think it’s embarrassing that the fanbase, or a loud part of it, is exaggerating on this.
It was a no talent play but it worked and, at the end of the day, the man committed holding. McDavid himself committed holding and roughing in the sequence prior to the cross check.
If anyone, Myers deserves the “hate”.
Win the game.
I remember Chucky told Kass to stay off the tracks. The next game we were treated to the best BOA in over a decade with a goalie fight and the Oil dominated.
Let fans hate who they want to hate. Players rally around slights real and perceived, why not fans? To me, this reads past ‘not understanding’ and hits on gatekeeping.
I think this game has the potential to be very fun, especially for a Thursday in January but i think these Oilers are a few snapshows like Mike Smith away from a true bonanza.
I remember that game – I watched it from Sau Paulo. I told my wife I was only going to watch the first period (it was a late game and Brazil was 3 hours ahead of mountain) – I watched the entire thing.
At the same time, the Oilers lost two prior games against the flames where the entire game changed with Kassian going off and taking multiple penalties.
In any event, I don’t see Garland anywhere near Tkachuk at the time. Tkachuk was taking runs at players in vulnerable positions, etc. Garland committed holding.
If there is some extra energy and whatnow for this game, great, I”m all for that. As long as it doesn’t distract the team from playing the game and getting two points in regulation – it has in the examples with the flames (different Oilers team, of course).
Hope you made it over to Florianopolis just a few hours south. Gorgeous.
The who is irrelevant in my opinion. Like I said, players rally around things real and perceived. Garland – perceived. Tkachuk – real.
Fans can too, ask Winnipeg, makes the experience much more fun.
Lets separate what you or I might want as a fan vs what a player or team might want. They take the pain, the bruises, the missing teeth, you or I do not.
Surely they want to win the game, but they have time for a little payback and will even sacrifice a penalty or two is my guess. I support them if that’s where they go.
Having said this, Oilers don’t have many cards to play in regard to retribution so Im not expecting a lot, I just hope they hold their own and don’t allow any more crap like a purposefully targeted crosscheck to the face on a critically important defenceman.
Sure, payback, smart payback is just fine.
I just don’t see Garland as the proper target for that. He committed holding.
If its anyone, its Myers, or Soucey from the playoffs, no?
I don’t think McDavid committed holding. Roughing probably, but borderline. But when the 2 first collided and fell to the ice as McDavid passed away the puck, McDavid was just trying to get up, Garland squeezes with his legs behind him around McDavid’s leg to hold McDavid and also holds McDavid’s left arm (ESPN has a really good picture of Garland’s bear hug on McDavid’s arm). McDavid was never trying to hold Garland down. As he is trying to pull his arm out and get up, he does take a swipe at him but never really connects, which maybe could be called roughing, but is McDavid supposed to passively let a guy hold him forever. The cross check to the head though was not definitely the appropriate response in that situation.
Garland is the player that wasn’t penalized for his shenanigans, then went on to say it was all done on purpose. If fans want to have a hate on for Garland it’s pretty simple to figure out why. Maybe not to the ones that view themselves as Holy and Above but for the normal fan it’s a pretty simple equation to figure out.
Myers is also a villain yet he’s not playing tonight as he’s suspended. So this equation is also an easy one to figure out.
Finally the Oilers played them in a 7 game series just last spring, so it’s fairly simple after a nasty series that none of the Canucks are in the good graces of the fan base. This is sport.
.
McDavid did the right thing, and if a teammate wants to grab Garland and loosen a few teeth, that won’t determine a 60 minute game.
Canucks defence sucks – just win the game.
Prospectasaurus!
More OHL goodness with a quintet of NAmateurs on tap.
Wakely scored the GWG yesternight and Akey acquired two assists.
The Kniggits also do that thing tonight, along with the House of Stone.
Barrie (Akey, Wakely) @ 5 p.m.
London (O’Reilly, Nicholl) @5 p.m.
Peterborough (Stonehouse) @ 5 p.m.
All times are the same time and are also Manning time.
Some good-natured hate always makes a game better. The shenanigans from Saturday should allow the crowd to enjoy themselves howling at the “enemy” and hopefully amp up the Oilers too. I enjoy those games that are turned up in intensity.
What exactly is “good-natured hate”?
The kind that exists between fan bases which doesn’t require riot police to guard barricades between sections. I would prefer no punch ups in the stands too. But plenty of cat-calling, booing and chants.
As an educator of teenagers, I love using a good oxymoron.
Score early.
Score often.
Be prepared for the Canucks to play dirty.
The sooner Tocchet(a noted Oilers hater since1987) gets sacked and is away from the Pacific Division the better it’s going to be for everyone concerned.
1985 for Tocchet, He lost those Stanley Cup Finals too, as a hard-nosed rookie under a hard-nosed rookie coach, Mike Keenan. He was already a major pain in the ass.
I met Craig mactavish after the Oilers game vs flordia at the hotel across Roger’s my cousin has a condo there and we met at the elevator I told Craig he picked good between nurse and Draisaitl.
He was also very much part of that process based on reporting and his own words at the time. I think MacT wanted those two building blocks up the middle. As time has moved along, I do wonder what keeping MacT and not hiring Chiarelli would have looked like.
I do wounder that same thing Mr low tide. Would eberle still be here? I still think hall would be gone though.
Pros: Effective drafting. He was cooking in 2013 and it didn’t work out. Carolina has picked up that slack. The 2015 draft I can’t really attribute to Chiarelli since he just joined. Marino pick maybe.
MacT never made great trades but never shot his foot clean off so Erikkson Ek and Carlo likely.
Cons:
I think the pro side would’ve been just as terrible. More Nikitins and Ferences? Asking the question on Dubnyk?
He embraced analytics and Dellow but also hired the Dementor then babied Nelson.
I do think a MacT style team with 97 and 29 would win multiple Stanley’s. I’m pretty sure Hall and Eberle would’ve been moved out either way for defence and Toby Peterson. I don’t think MacT would be able to build a MacT team.